Week in Review: April 30 – May 4

With a new game coming out every day, the biggest challenge might be deciding which one you’ll enjoy the most. To help you along, we crafted reviews of some of the newly released game for the week ending May 4.

Macabre lovers rejoice! Theater of the Absurd Collector’s Edition brings a vast, mysterious, and somewhat dark atmosphere to the world of hidden object games. It’s also a puzzle game. Oh, and it’s a little adventurous, too. In addition to moderately challenging puzzles, the game features cut scenes, voice overs and a little spooky music to immerse you in the absurd. Of course, if the likes of Lovecraft could freak you out, you may not want to study your computer screen too intensely! The collector’s edition features bonus content and an in-game strategy guide to help if you find yourself in a dark corner and don’t know where to go.

As the title might suggest this game is designed to train your brain. With eight completely different mini-games, you’re sure to find one to enhance your cognitive prowess. Brainville has memory-training games, language games and logic challenges. Oh, and some bonus quizzes and trivia!

This isn’t your typical restaurant management game. Although the gameplay may be a little standard, you won’t be serving the normal kind of customer in Dead Hungry Diner. You’ll have to appease a variety of monsters, and sate their monstrous cravings before they get frustrated and leave without paying. Don’t worry, though, you’ll get your own set of supernatural abilities to help along the way. Spice up the customer experience with magic, and don’t forget to call in Frankie the bouncer if your dinner guests get out of hand!

Welcome back to Gardenscapes! Since you did such an exquisite job cleaning up the garden, we thought you might want to give the mansion a try. The mansion’s hall makes for an awesomely spacious and cozy guest area – or at least it would if it weren’t a little run down at the moment. With the help of Austin the butler, and, armed with 60 different design items, you have all the tools you’ll need to return the guest hall to its former glory. You’ll also be able to enjoy the original soundtrack while delving into the heroic field of interior design.

If you live and breathe gardening, this game is for you. Garden Rescue pits your mind against an army of insects that you must stop before they fill their bellies on your precious garden. How does one go about defending a garden against the invading army of ants? Well, with plants, of course! You’ll need to strategically place plants along the insects’ path to ensure they don’t make it through the garden’s fence. You’ll earn coins over time, which you can use to upgrade your plants to form a better line of defense against those pesky bugs.

Have you ever wondered what happened to Atlantis? How about its people? In Legends of Atlantis, you’ll need to help evacuate the populace before the crashing tidal waves, massive earthquakes and raging fires claim the city. You’ll have to manage your resources as you rebuild roads and buildings to help the citizens escape. With more than 50 levels, and multiple tiers in the scoring system, you’ll have plenty of challenges ahead as you try to save Atlantis from almost-certain doom.

Congratulations on graduating Cooking Academy! Of course, now that you’ve opened up your own restaurant, you don’t want to be like every other restaurant out there, so it’s time to research some delicious new dishes and write your own cookbook. In addition to learning a little food trivia in your quest to culinary excellence, you’ll have more than 60 recipes to explore and exams to master.

Another demonic tale of puzzle-solving, hidden object-finding goodness. The goal is to save your friend from the infamous Demon of Darkness, but you’ll need to battle the many werecreatures that roam the deserted island to do it.

If you like hidden object games with a little bit of strategy mixed in, look no further, as you’ll need to solve puzzles to advance through the game. Oh, and did we mention time travel? That’s right, you’ll be able to switch between past and present to explore two different time lines!

Conor is a Marketing Manager with Big Fish, working out of the Seattle office. In his spare time he enjoys watching science documentaries and playing old school adventure games. Get in touch with him on Twitter! or Google+